Post confuses nationwide number of Harris volunteers with those in Georgia | Fact check
The claim: 400,000 people in Georgia volunteered for Kamala Harris' campaign
An Aug. 26 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows a quote from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham about the importance of former President Donald Trump winning Georgia's electoral votes in the 2024 presidential election.
"If we don’t win Georgia, I don’t see how we get to 270. But I do believe Georgia’s ours to lose," Graham said on CNN's State of the Union. "It’s really hard for Kamala Harris to tell Georgians that we’re on the right track – they don’t believe it.”
The post's caption reads, "Wanna bet, Lindsey? 400,000 new volunteers in GA! We’re sick of Trump and sick of MAGA!"
The post garnered more than 100 likes in a day. Other versions of the claim were shared on Facebook, Threads and X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: False
The post confuses the number of volunteers in Georgia with the number of those nationwide. Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign has 35,000 volunteers in Georgia.
Post mixes up number of nationwide and Georgia volunteers
A New York Times/Siena poll published on Aug. 17 shows the margin between Trump and Harris tightening in the swing state of Georgia, signifying the rapid growth of Harris' campaign in the wake of President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race. As of Aug. 22, Harris and the Georgia Democratic Party had coordinated 26 field offices and 200 full-time staff in the state, according to the state party's vice chair, Matthew Wilson.
But the post's estimate of volunteers in the swing state is inaccurate.
Fact check: No, Kamala Harris didn't 'back out' of Sept. 4 debate
NBC News initially reported on Aug. 24 that Harris's campaign had 400,000 volunteers in Georgia but corrected the statistic the following day, prior to when the Threads post was shared. In its correction, the outlet explained it had misstated the number of volunteers in Georgia, listing the nationwide figure instead.
Harris'campaign "launched a mobilization effort in the state and now touts more than 35,000 volunteers, 174 staffers and 24 coordinated campaign offices sprawled across Georgia," reads the updated article. "The Harris-Walz campaign said it has recruited nearly 400,000 news (sic) volunteers nationally since Harris launched her presidential bid last month."
Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt confirmed the volunteer numbers in an email to USA TODAY.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
NBC News, Aug. 25, Harris and Walz heading to Georgia as campaign seeks to build on convention momentum
Lauren Hitt, Aug. 26, Email exchange with USA TODAY
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris campaign has 35,000 volunteers in Georgia | Fact check